Some of those who went before us had a vision for this county. What will we do with it?

My pal Lou reminded me a few weeks ago that a milestone anniversary of our acquaintance was quickly approaching.

It had crossed my mind, too, particularly as the anticipation of a new stadium in Hagerstown brought back memories of that night at the old one.

I'd only arrived in the area a few months before, and I was taking pictures of an event for the publication that had brought me here. He was one of the emcees for the evening.

During a break, he sat down near me in the dugout and started conversing as if we were already old friends. I introduced myself. He recognized my name; his co-worker at WJEJ Radio, Dave Rhodes, had apparently mentioned this new person covering the county commissioners.

But he laughed. "I thought you were somebody's daughter," he said.

I've been thinking a lot lately about my first year here. It was a heady time for me; I'd been ill for a good part of my graduate school years, and recovery had been slow. I was ready to live a little. I spent that summer roaming the region, meeting people, learning about my new home.

My job made that easy; I could be shipped off anywhere from Winchester to Gettysburg on any given day. I'd seen this job as a stop on the way to the place I'd set my sights on, Boston, but I fell in love with the landscape, the history and the people.

I knew I was sunk when less-than-optimum weather had me worrying a little about the local peach crop; I didn't even eat peaches, except occasionally in ice cream.

I met a lot of fascinating people that year. It goes without saying, perhaps, that Lou was one of the most colorful. The aforementioned Dave Rhodes was my first friend in Hagerstown. Within hours of our first introduction, Dave was jump-starting my car after a spring snowstorm.

But one of the most industrious was Marie Byers. She was president of the Washington County Board of Education when I first arrived, and my impression from the start that she was driven to excel — and to push everyone around her to excel, too.

She and the late Claud Kitchens, who was superintendent at the time, were a strong leadership team. Even then, there were budget disagreements between the school board and the county commissioners. But while they were both disappointed with the final decisions, neither of them seemed to panic. They just buckled down and got to work.

I eventually left Hagerstown, and she eventually retired from the school board. But when I returned after a nearly decade of wandering, she told me about a new project she was pursuing called Discovery Station. I wasn't surprised by this in the least.

Years later she told me about another idea she had for a museum. That one didn't materialize, but not for lack of enthusiasm on Marie's part.

We met up for lunch at Runways near the airport one day, just to chat, and she was still brimming with ideas. It was one of the last times I saw her. She wasn't getting around very easily, and I asked if I could help her into her car. She was fine, she said. She wasn't about to let an aging body get in her way.

Marie and Mary Snook, who had been the wife of one county commissioner and the mother of another, passed away on the same day. I met Mary that first summer, too — she would accompany her husband Marty to the various functions county commissioners were expected to attend. Marty was a gregarious, down-to-earth guy, and Mary was always gracious and kind to me.

It's not always easy to be the mate or the parent of a public person. Their roles rob you of a lot of their time, and if they take that role seriously, it can keep them preoccupied during their personal time, too. And when they are criticized, well, that can be pretty hard to take.

But Mary always seemed, to me at least, to handle it with grace. I really admired that.

As I was preparing a report on new development last fall, the first thing Jonathan Horowitz, the county's business and economic development director, said to me was that the groundwork for all this new new business had been prepared by previous leaders who had established industrial parks, secured enterprise zones and developed business incentives. I smiled. I remember all that. Marty Snook was one of those leaders.

It's a little bittersweet to look back on all of that; so many of the people who shaped our community back then are gone now.

And yet I realize how privileged I am to have known them — innovators in education like Marie Byers and Claud Kitchens. Economic visionaries like Merle Elliott and John Waltersdorf. County officials who sometimes made hard decisions like Marty Snook, Dick Roulette and Barry Teach. Fellow journalists who reported it all — Dave Rhodes, Bob Borngesser and the always bubbly Franca Lewis.

So much of what they worked for is now becoming a reality; the question before us now is how we will safeguard and build on that legacy. Our region is on the cusp of some pretty major stuff. How will we handle it?

Mayor Martinez recently asked me what kept bringing me back to Hagerstown. It's a fair question; career moves have taken me away from Hagerstown a couple of times. But I always seem to be drawn back.

Part of it is the gorgeous countryside and its history. I remember watching the Ken Burns Civil War documentary from a suburb of Charlotte, fighting back homesick tears as the historian Shelby Foote described the "handsome country" around Sharpsburg.

Part of it is that Hagerstown is where I finally got well after a long season of illness, where I honed my craft and, frankly, started "adulting."

But most of it is the people who have shown so much kindness over the years. We don't get to choose where we're born. But we can choose where we end up. And I keep choosing this place.

Hagerstown and Washington County are not perfect. There are issues that scream to be dealt with. I tell you about them every week. But if I can be really honest here, I have little patience with those who seem to do nothing but gripe, who blast the people who are at least trying to make a difference and write off their efforts before they've even gotten off the ground.

If you're one of those people, I'll let you in on a little secret: Your leaders are going to make mistakes. And I might very well be the one to tell you about them. All those folks I mentioned before? They made mistakes, too. But they were in there trying. What are you doing?

Ah, spring. Time to get the house in order. Or not.

One thing I've learned over the years is that what you assume is foolhardy now might just pay dividends in the long run.

We have a lot to be concerned about. But we also have a legacy we can be proud of. Let's do right by the Maries who went before us.

Let's be better, Hagerstown.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Can we latch onto the vision of community leaders who went before us?